1st chapter of Harper Lee's 'Go Set a Watchman' has readers going 'Whoa!'

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Photos:The legacy of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

The book "To Kill a Mockingbird" was published July 11, 1960. In 2014, it became an e-book for the first time. The novel by Harper Lee was turned into a movie staring Gregory Peck, left, as Atticus Finch and Brock Peters as Tom Robinson.

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Photos:The legacy of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

Atticus and Scout – Gregory Peck and Mary Badham as Atticus and his daughter, Scout.

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Photos:The legacy of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

Jem, Dill, and Scout – Jem and Dill push Scout in the tire.

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Photos:The legacy of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

Scout – Mary Badham as Scout Finch.

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Photos:The legacy of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

Scout gives a lynch mob a crisis of conscience – The children, having followed Atticus to the jail, help turn away an angry crowd.

Boo and Scout – Robert Duvall as Boo Radley on the porch swing with Scout.

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Story highlights

The first chapter of "Go Set a Watchman" is published online

Many people are overjoyed to read it, but stunned by some of its content

The novel, the sequel of "To Kill a Mockingbird," comes out Tuesday

(CNN)Fans of "To Kill a Mockingbird" will have read about three-quarters of the first chapter of Harper Lee's hotly anticipated second novel before their stomachs drop.

We're not going to reveal the stunning plot development right here, because everybody hates spoilers, right? But there will be some pretty big hints about what it involves, so read on at your own risk.

The first chapter of the novel, "Go Set a Watchman," was published online early Friday ET by The Guardian in the U.K. and The Wall Street Journal in the U.S. The book comes out Tuesday.

Reactions swiftly followed on social media, with many readers flabbergasted by the big reveal concerning Jem Finch, a central character in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

One Twitter user said she found the excerpt "problematic," another was unimpressed with its description of Jean Louise, a former tomboy, as "easy to look at."

Written first, published decades later

Lee's publisher announced in February that the 89-year-old author would be publishing the second book, which she actually wrote before "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Pulitzer Prize winner and "To Kill A Mockingbird" author Harper Lee

"In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called 'Go Set a Watchman,' " Lee said in a statement released by her publisher. "It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort. My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout's childhood, persuaded me to write a novel (what became 'To Kill a Mockingbird') from the point of view of the young Scout."

The manuscript of "Go Set a Watchman" was rediscovered last year, the statement said, although The New York Times reported last week that it may have been found earlier, in 2011.

Questions were also raised about whether Lee, who lives in an assisted living facility in Monroeville, Alabama, was in a fit state to knowingly consent to the publication of the novel.

For decades after "To Kill a Mockingbird" came out, Lee had steadfastly refused to publish another book.

State officials in Alabama who investigated the situation said in March that they had found that the author did wish to publish "Go Set a Watchman."

Grappling with 'issues both personal and political'

Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

Harper Lee, known for her 1960 classic "To Kill a Mockingbird," will see her second novel, "Go Set a Watchman," published July 14. Her 55-year gap between books is highly unusual but not unprecedented. Here are some other authors who were known for one big book or took long breaks between them.

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Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

American writer Sylvia Plath published "The Bell Jar" in the UK under a pseudonym in 1963, although it wasn't released in the U.S. until 1971. The semi-autobiographical novel explored a woman's descent into mental illness and depression. Plath committed suicide shortly after the book was first published.

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Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

Despite the fact that she wrote two novellas, Margaret Mitchell was best known for her epic novel, "Gone with the Wind," named in a 2014 survey as Americans' second-favorite book after the Bible. The 1939 blockbuster movie adaptation only cemented the book's legacy.

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Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

J.D. Salinger published several collections of short stories but is most associated with his 1951 coming-of-age novel, "The Catcher in the Rye."

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Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

Emily Bronte was one of three sisters, all of whom published works under male pseudonyms. Her only novel, "Wuthering Heights," was published in 1847 and challenged strict social norms in England at the time.

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Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

Ralph Ellison is best known for his classic 1952 novel, "Invisible Man," an exploration of black identity. His second novel, "Juneteenth," was published posthumously 47 years later, in 1999.

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Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

John Kennedy Toole won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his only novel, "A Confederacy of Dunces," published in 1980. He had committed suicide 11 years earlier. The unknown manuscript came to the attention of publishers after Toole's mother gave it to writer Walker Percy, who reluctantly agreed to read it and then became its champion.

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Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

Marilynne Robinson published the well-received novel "Housekeeping" in 1980. Her second novel, "Gilead," was not published until 2004 and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

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Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

Henry Roth blamed prolonged writer's block for the six-decade gap between his first novel, "Call it Sleep," in 1934 and his next work, the "Mercy of a Rude Stream" series, which arrived in 1994.

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Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

Donna Tartt made a splash with her debut novel, "The Secret History," in 1992. It took 10 years before her followup, "The Little Friend," was published and another 11 years until "The Goldfinch" arrived in 2013. That most recent book won a Pulitzer Prize.

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Photos:Authors known for one big book, long breaks

Junot Diaz took 12 years to follow up "Drown," his 1995 short-story collection, with the novel, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." He called that period "a perfect storm of insecurity and madness and pressure."

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In the book, Jean Louise is "forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand her father's attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood," according to the statement.

"To Kill a Mockingbird," which Lee wrote after she moved to New York, made her name after its publication in 1960. The book, which addresses the problem of racism in the South, won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a beloved 1962 film. Gregory Peck won the Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of Atticus Finch.

It's a mainstay of high school reading lists and, as of 2006, had sold more than 30 million copies. Until now, it had been her only published novel.